Obama has only been President for 17 days. It's mind-boggling how many screw-up there have been. "Stumbles"? Has there even ever been any normal walking in the Obama administration? It seems to me that the mode of ambulation is the stumble.

Expect additional stumblage today when President Obama explains to the families of those whose lives were lost when the USS Cole was bombed, and when the Twin Towers were brought down, that he is going to release from prosecution the terrorists who have confessed to planning and/or carrying out those acts.

Plus the Secretary of Labor nominee has tax problems.

Plus the Porkulus bill is in trouble and it appears that it may be passed by only Dems voting in its favor.

Maybe Zini did pay his taxes and DearlyBeloved Leader was worried that he wouldn't fit in with the rest of the cabinet.

Ann, it almost makes me think that a first term Senator with no real world experience or accomplishments beyond being editor of the Harvard Law review isn't qualified to be President. But that couldn't be right? BO is a Harvard Man. He is erudite. He had a ghost writer write a couple of autobiographies. He is "intellectually curious" whatever that means. He couldn't be in over his head could he? Nah.

As an aside, it wasn't so sad it would be funny to watch the most sheltered and intellectually incurious group of people in earth, the mainstream media, spend the summer talking down Republicans for not being "intellectually curious" because you know clowns like Lithwick and Matthews and Gibson spend their evenings examining the great questions of the world in a fair and unbiased manner. UGH

Putting aside my ideological differences, what happened to the Obama competency that masterminded what must be acknowledged as a brilliant campaign, knocking off the Clinton machine (and whatever you think of them personally, the idea that this "nobody" from Chicago would ever bring down Bill and Hill a couple of years ago would have gotten you laughed off the bus).

What happened to the competence?

He looks like an inexperienced novice who never actually did, or ran, anything.

It is not like he got any assistence from the media or anything taking down Hillary. It is also a good thing that the fact that he was black didn't cause a lot of guilty white people to ignore any short comings he had in order to exercise their own racial demons by voting for a black man. Nope, he won that election strictly on his incredible exectutive competance and of course the fact that he is so errudite and a Harvard Man.

I don't think that Obama has been around long enough to have made a lot of friends. Good friends that he knows well and that he can trust. What we have now, is him scrambling to find people to fill all of these government jobs that every president has to staff. He's had to go with a lot of Clinton people who at least have some idea of how government works, but he is off his game when he picks marginal people. Maybe he just doesn't make friends that easy. I noticed that before the election his so-called friends were discarded one after another when their histories were exposed. Then there is his total lack of experiences. We have a housing financial crisis, but when he needed a loan for his house, he went to Rezko. For all the talk about affordable health care, let's take a look at his wife, and her employment at the hospital. She was making, how much? $300,000+ Doing what? Is that job needed. Funny when he said that Wall St. types getting fed aid would only be able to make $500,000. Why not limit their pay to what his wife was making. Two affirmative action clowns in the White House.

This is what happens when the candidate is not properly vetted by the voters and media. When I read the Federalist Papers many years ago, I remember that the Founding Fathers provided for impeachment (and, no, I'm not calling for impeachment) but doubted that it would ever be brought against the President. Their reasoning was that the candidates for that high office would have been examined thoroughly by the press and voters by that time and their competence and character would hold no surprises. In this election (at least), the press became a Fifth Column instead of the Fourth Estate and allowed the voters to project their own views onto the "blank slate" that is Obama. Now we have to hope that he either innately has the necessary skills or that he is an extremely fast learner. 17 days is not a sufficient test but the results so far are not encouraging.

At some point you have to stand for something and you have to stand for the people around you. Obama has never done that. He has made an entire career by standing for nothing beyond empty slogans and sitting back and letting people project on to him what they wanted him to be. Finally now that he is in a real position of authority, the buck has stopped somewhere. He can't just sit there and let other people project on him. He has to lead. He also has to act in defense of his own people and show some loyalty. I think those two acts are entirely beyond him.

The porkulus bill is classic Obama. He said a lot of meaningless slogans about growth and the emergency but never advocated any real policies. He left that entirely to the Congress. Of course the liberals in Congress rolled him like lions taking down a sick wildebeast. No he stuck with an unpopular bill loaded it up with liberal pork. But since he had no plan of his own or any real ideas of his own, he can't fight back and will be stuck with whatever Congress gives him. He is so in over his head right now he can't even fake it. A good actor could have at least faked for a year or so. BO lasted two weeks before it became clear that he wasn't up to the job.

Senators almost always have the wrong skill set to be executives. Now not only do we have an inexperienced Senator as our chief executive, we also have a Senator for our Vice President, and for Secretary of State ... and Interior and Commerce.

Gates, Vilsack, Napolitano, and Shinseki certainly have executive experience, but even if not bumbling Senators the rest of the cabinet is rather thin on experience, too.

Ann it almost makes me think that a first term Senator with no real world executive experience or any accomplishments beyond being editor of the Harvard Law Review isn't qualified to be President.

This is just what we need as President, Chief Executive and Commander in Chief - an amateur. Despite all his talk about hope and change, I'm left hoping this change in administration won't prove a disaster.

I admire anyone who has read The Federalist Papers. I have them, and I've attempted to read them many times, but what I really think I need instead of reading them by myself is to read them as a part of a course.

As to Obama stumbling...I'm taking no pleasure in this. It scares the hell out of me, especially with regard to Iraq.

George Bush's third term? Nah, George Washington's 56th term. Near as I can tell, this is what government's always looked like before the high-school history teachers have had a chance to pretty it up.

It seems like he's making two or three "important" televised announcements every day. Is he going to continue reading every executive order when he signs it, explaining how each one is a dramatic break with the recent, sordid past?

Yet despite his omnipresence on TV, he still seems "AWOL" when it most matters (stimulus bill, Daschle, Zinni).

Hey fcai - learn to read. I specifically said I was not calling for impeachment but was using the reasoning of the Founding Fathers on that topic to make a point. You're either disengenous or illiterate.

It is also a good thing that the fact that he was black didn't cause a lot of guilty white people to ignore any short comings he had in order to exercise their own racial demons by voting for a black man. Nope, he won that election strictly on his incredible exectutive competance and of course the fact that he is so errudite and a Harvard Man.

The irony is, he didn't benefit from the "soft bigotry of low expectations," once he was in office -- instead, he has suffered from the problem of colossal, wholly unrealistic expectations. His transition has been so incompetent, it's made Clinton's early bungling look like genius, but even if his transition had been managed halfway competently, he could never have lived up to the expectations so many had set for him. It may even be a mercy for all involved that expectations are getting reset further and further downward with every day that passes.

AJ, you can find the details of one of the Cole bomber's situation here:http://hotair.com/archives/2009/02/06/obama-withdraws-charges-against-nashiri-for-now/Sadly, The One is indeed stopping his prosecution for the time being.

I think it's still a little early to talk about trends in the Obama administration. However, as someone who supported Hillary in the primaries, I have to point out - isn't it interesting to see that the Cabinet appointment that was most applauded by all sides and that went more smoothly than most of the others was that of Hillary Clinton? (Tom Daschle had more drama than Hillary Clinton? Tom Daschle?) That probably wouldn't have been predicted not so long ago.

That would suggest that Obama doesn't have a good HR executive getting everyone selected, vetted, and seated in their chair. (Would this be the chief of staff’s responsibility?)

There is an old organizational behavior model that says that all new work groups pass through four stages: forming, storming, norming, and performing.

You can help reduce the storming, and facilitate the norming by getting the organization chart set with very clear responsibility assignments. But here, people have already commented on the fact that the Whitehouse org chart seems confusing. You have cabinet members PLUS regional special envoys and specific policy czars.

Volker has carped about how the financial advisory group hasn't even formed yet. But for the groups that have formed, there must be some wonderful and amazing storming going on right now.

Goody! The first conspiracy theory of the Obama Administration. Was it Biden who called to congratulate Zinni, or was it, as in the reports yesterday, really Obama? And if it was Obama, who is reining him in? What was offered to Zinni to make him change his statement? Let's watch and see.

I hate that the Washington Times scooped the New York Times on the story. But did the NYT get involved only to do damage control? Get the word out that Biden called Zinni, not giver-then-taker-away Obama.

And another thing. What does this say about Hillary having any authority over her own department?

rdkraus,I guess you could call the Obama campaign brilliant, if brilliance is defined as significant tactical errors by your opponent in the primary, combined with a disgusting unwillingness by the media to followup on your weaknesses, while at the same time wildly exaggerating weaknesses and/or just plain making things up about your opponents.

I'm not saying that Clinton did not make mistakes in her campaign, and, well, McCain was another "worst Republican candidate ever." Nor did the media do anything but applaud.

But he did many, many things right. He KNEW how to work the Democratic primaries and caucuses in a way Hillary obviously did not. He made many correct moves along the way, from playing the race card, to dumping Wright, etc.

Let's not rewright history.

The fact that this no-record, nobody from Chicago outwitted the Clinton machine is no small accomplishment.

Ann it almost makes me think that a first term Senator with no real world executive experience or any accomplishments beyond being editor of the Harvard Law Review isn't qualified to be President.

I realize I'm late to this discussion, but the choice wasn't between an inexperienced administrator and an experienced administrator. It was between a one-term Senator and a four-term Senator.

It's hard to imagine McCain doing any better with the stimulus package. It's easy to imagine him doing worse. For example, McCain's instinct would lead him to compromise early and often with the Democrats, while simultaneously retaining all the Republican-demanded boondoggles.

It's hard to imagine McCain doing any better with the stimulus package.

McCain's history is against bills like this. He - almost alone- railed against the most recent farm bill. He voted against the monstrous transportation bill.It should be very easy to imagine McCain doing better with the stimulus package than let Pelosi have her way!

he could never have lived up to the expectations so many had set for him

The problem ultimately is that Obama has 2 or 3 positions on every subject. The press never has pinned him down on any of them, so therefore when he now has to actually make choices, 40-60% of the people on each topic are going to be disappointed.

Well, I have to say that so far Obama has lived up to the expectations I had for him and his administration - I expected excessive spending, incompetence in matters of governance generally, and particular in foreign affairs. And they haven't even started really messing with medicine yet!

If the Obama administration keeps this up, in 5 years we'll be hunting Democrats with dogs (to use Phil Gramm's locution about the Clinton socialized medicine gambit.

The fact that this no-record, nobody from Chicago outwitted the Clinton machine is no small accomplishment.

Partial credit is due Obama, but his campaign wasn't run all that well. Had the media not been completely in the bag for Obama, he would have been sunk by February. His speeches alone were horrible and extremely arrogant. What candidate compares himself to Jesus and gets away with it? (You have to go way back to the early campaign for that one.) Also in the early campaign, what candidate's wife has completely trashed the candidate in speech after speech and gotten away with it?

(The press treated Bush II in 1999/2000 as a foregone conclusion which was irritating, but still feel far short of the blatant adoration and anointing of Obama.)

I agree with Darcy as well. Our enemies see his weaknesses as well as we do.

Does Obama even realize he's president? What quirk in his personality or social anxiety would lead him to this position, fronting a ridiculous bill, hiring a doofus of a press secretary, mocking Jessica Simpson's weight?

Maybe today after he meets with the families of the Cole and 9/11 attacks, he will come face to face with the reality of his job.

PatCA - you are correct - Steppin Fetchit earned an honest living during the last great depression, at a time when blacks were truly restricted. He did his job well, was paid for his actual work, and kept his self respect. Obama has much to learn from those who came before.

This Zinni thing is an executive failure. The stimulous thing is what Obama ought to know how to do... work people and get them going the same direction. That was what he was supposed to be good at, right?

But making executive decisions, management decisions, and providing that sort of leadership with an understanding of how people react to having their lives jerked around is something we were told was *irrelevant*.

We were told that Obama managed his CAMPAIGN STAFF.

I don't think that McCain would have been wonderful, and yes, he was a Senator, too, but I can't even imagine him managing people so poorly. He was a military officer, after all, so he does have executive experience.

Maybe Obama is under the impression that when he tells people to do stuff that they have to do what he says. Maybe he doesn't realize that NO ONE rules except with the consent of the governed.

Zinni at least seems to get that, if what I read was accurate (and why wouldn't he, since Generals serve at the pleasure of NCO's) he told them where to stick their consolation offers.

Zinni's just another whiner and this entire affair will be soon forgotten.

It's amazing to read the inane comments about something like this...compared to the massive blunders via G.W. & Company that got us buried in Iraq.

Maybe this will give many here a more realistic perspective as to what is REALLY IMPORTANT:

WASHINGTON – The Army is investigating an unexplained and stunning spike in suicides in January. The count is likely to surpass the number of combat deaths reported last month by all branches of the armed forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the fight against terrorism.

"In January, we lost more soldiers to suicide than to al-Qaida," said Paul Rieckhoff, director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. He urged "bold and immediate action" by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

According to figures obtained by The Associated Press, there were seven confirmed suicides last month, compared with five a year earlier. An additional 17 cases from January are under investigation.

I don't think that McCain would have been wonderful, and yes, he was a Senator, too, but I can't even imagine him managing people so poorly. He was a military officer, after all, so he does have executive experience.

Maybe Obama is under the impression that when he tells people to do stuff that they have to do what he says. Maybe he doesn't realize that NO ONE rules except with the consent of the governed.

Don't expect things to get any better. These guys still think they are running a Chicago precinct with all the graft and corruption tactics that they are accustomed to using.

They are small time hoods and crooks who are suddenly playing in the big leagues. Obama is nothing more than an empty suit and it is becoming more and more apparent. He has this OMFG what have I gotten myself into look on his face. NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME.

My husband and I were laughing this morning at Obama's cajoling and wheedling of the Senators to get his spending payola obscenity of a bill passed. His voice was up almost a full octave over his "I am a serious politician" voice. He sounded more like a petulant teenager trying to get out of being late for curfew.

You have to laugh otherwise we'll start crying. We are in such deep doo doo.

Either way, this was not going to be a good four years. Both of them would have been likely to do the wrong thing.

Gotta admit, it's more fun being on the outside. If it's gonna go bad, let it be on someone else's watch. In addition, being on the outside seems to be the only thing that gets Repub's acting like conservatives.

There is no level of shame that is deep enough for the baby boomers (although it really is the fault of their parents, who failed to pass on the skills and values of self control necessary to govern and act responsibly).

Delusional. Most of you can't even admit that he's trying. Not only that, he's doing exactly what he said he was going to do when he campaigned: big spending. But hey, liberals complained for 8 years, so it's your turn now. Take it from me: Pace yourselves!

Hoosier, why not give Obama a chance to actually do something for the country instead of bitching and whining about things that have happened during the course of 17 fucking days? Every administration has missteps and mistakes during transition periods...read some history and you'll understand that.

You're nothing more than a right wing sycophant who just can't accept the fact that you put up an old fool and a young redneck as your party's candidates and they got their asses handed to them.

Hoosier, why not give Obama a chance to actually do something for the country instead of bitching and whining about things that have happened during the course of 17 fucking days?

Maybe you mistook the hysterical laughter for bitchin and whining. See it's like this; folks like you paraded this dolt like he was the best thing since sliced bread and how business as usual in Washington was going to change. I'm simply holding him to the oh so high standard the likes of you raised him on.

Every administration has missteps and mistakes during transition periods...read some history and you'll understand that.

Transition period is over. It's game time now. Plus I've forgotten more history than you'll ever know.

Yeah, you try being handed the keys to a disaster area and not stumble trying to make your way through it.

This is more like standing up and declaring, "I can lead us out of this disaster area. I have plans and strategies and will appoint the right people to make it happen. Someone give me the keys!" then, upon getting handed the keys looking around and saying, "Hey! Is there any gas for the vehicles? Who is supposed to be driving? I thought Daschle, Geithner, Solis and ha already had driver's licenses. Zinni would do great, except I changed my mind."

Obama reminds me of nothing so much as John Belushi in Blues Brothers explaining why he left Carrie Fisher standing at the altar.

And, after seeing the response to criticisma of this statement, I expect 4 years of "Bush screwed it up so bad *no one* (not even Teh One could make it work.

This, of course, misses the fact that ush has had nothing to do with O's appointments or the Porkulus Bill.

Well when Zinni was whining about Bush I'm sure you and yours didn't have that attitude.

Frankly I think Zinni is all about Zinni and this is more of the same-too bad your guy got stung by him.

Actually from Zinni's past performance they should have known better-and maybe somebody at the last minute wised up.

This guy Zinni is proving right now-yet again that he's a loose cannon-if he really cared about what was best for the country he shouldn't have let his vanity and hurt feelings reveal the fumbling and lack of preparedness by the Obama team about what should have been an important pick, particularly since not much can be done about that now.

What the hell check is left on Obama-the media-?

About the only reality check he is going to get now is from Putin and how...

Putin knows inexperience when he sees it.

Now as for the military suicides when you combine seasonal affective disorder, with post Christmas and the sea change that an Obama administration voted for by the American public-your going to have this.

These guys and gals have been sacrificing for years and it was for a long term higher goal and the American public just told them it was for naught.

Because we know Hillary! would have not had these kind of vetting problems.

A real vetting problem is appointing a college roommate who's expertise was being a former horse judge to be head of a national emergency agency. Or Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. So far, nothing close to that sort of incompetence that I can see. All this huff and puff is over what again exactly? He didn't know the intimate details of Tom Daschle's tax status beforehand? Ge, Zinni is upset? It's amazing Republicans are strutting around like they won and our brain dead media is more than willing to go along with the farce. Did you notice Republicans never get asked what their actual plan is other than what they tried the past 8 years that didn't work and was rejected overwhelmingly at the polls?

You're right Zach, you're absolutely right. I just bought into so much of his Hope and Change bullshit that I was simply expecting so much more by now.

Well I voted for the guy and even I didn't buy into all of that, which was just as much a media creation as it was an actual promise.

By the way, liberals who complained about Bush in the first two weeks of his presidency had something different going for them by way of the disputed election...so any of you with ODS who think you can compare yourselves to them are reaching.

Also, why would a conservative want to justify his whining by comparing himself to a liberal? Man up, pussies.

So now tell us how well Bambi and his FEMA are doing in Kentucky. From what I can see they are not even there yet and the President has not deigned to show up for his photo ops. That gives the people of Kentucky a real good idea of how much Bambi cares about the rest of the country.

And tell us again how really competent this crew is. If they can't even vet their own people after getting a big questionnaire filled out, what should make me believe they can do anything at all right.

Henry Buck said: The fact that Obama is relying upon Harry Reid to get the stimulus through shows either that Obama doesn't really care about the bill or is even less competent that Obama-phobes believe.

I don't think it's either, Obama's fingerprints are not on the bill. He will throw the Congressional Dems under the 2010 bus if the bill doesn't pass or it's ineffective.

Obama proved during the campaign that he has little to no loyalty to those who fail or embarrass him.

So it's actually a win-win for Obama, he will be free to triangulate center as Clinton did after the left's hobby horses drove his presidency into the popularity ratings ditch.

I'm beginning to think we are witnessing Clinton Lite, of course without the computer revolution and dot com bubble to fuel economic recovery.

More evidence that in the Obama administration, allpromies hae expiration dates.

From the NYT;

Under insistent questioning from a Senate panel, Mr. Panetta said that in extreme cases, if interrogators were unable to extract critical information from a terrorism suspect, he would seek White House approval for the C.I.A. to use methods that would go beyond those permitted under the new rules.

“If we had a ticking bomb situation, and obviously, whatever was being used I felt was not sufficient, I would not hesitate to go to the president of the United States and request whatever additional authority I would need,” Mr. Panetta said in his nomination hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Your crass, unfeeling remark demonstrates who is the prick here. Have you volunteered or donated to military support groups Michael? Have you sat with a wife or a mother during the worst moments of their life? If not then sit down and STFU, asshole.

No one has any fucking idea what these families feel/think or the stress families and servicemen endure in peaceful and combat deployment unless you've lived as a military dependent, mother or wife.

A service person suits up, kisses their loved ones goodbye and does their duty in some godforsaken place, expecting nothing more than the pride and satisfaction of doing the job. Isn't that enough? Or do they have bear having their privacy invaded and personal pain exploited for political means too?

At what point does this bozo start to lead? He's still in full blown campaign mode blaming Bush for all his problems. Like he had no idea what he was getting into when he took the job. It should be interesting to see how long it takes the public to tire of this. I know I have.

Host with the Most said... This conservative still has his fingers crossed that Obama will succeed in keeping the country safe and preventing the government from aiding in the economy's deterioration.

Me too, only the most idiotic, unamerican of political partisans are hoping for further destruction of family and national prospects simply to "better reposition our people to get the power HE now has."

*************Original Mike said... Iraq is probably his most important ambassador selection. Please don't screw this one up.

It's a shitty little ME country of 24 million, just like all the other shitty little ME nations with as little capacity individually to impact our economy or threaten our national security. Bush said it was HIS most important country. As if we prospered or failed based on whether or not Iraqis would turn out to be the Noble Purple-Fingered Democracy and America-loving Freedom Lovers!!!!! he predicted, rather than Shiite pawns of Iran battling infidels, Jews, Kurds, and Sunnis as they have for 700 years.

Afghanistan is on it's way to being "lost" to Taliban and whatever Karzai henchmen heroin smugglers they decide to ally with. The ones who did not make millions off Bush's debt-fueled largess and aren't fleeing to cozy digs in the USA. Afghans simply Reverting back to the natural Afghan order of things..

Either way, this was not going to be a good four years. Both of them would have been likely to do the wrong thing.

Yep, with dismay, I watched the preening, dumbly incoherent, and erratic McCain and the inexperienced Religious Right Goddes sidekick campaign and concluded that ticket had no business being anywhere near the White House. At least with Obama there was a chance he might settle down and run the White House as good as he ran his campaign. Too early to tell, yet.

Daschle, Zinni, chickenshit hypocrisy charges? Obama rolling too easily on Pelosi and her goody package after filling most his Caninet with non-Leftists?

All too early. Clinton, Nixon, and Reagan all had lame events early on, too..

****************Soldier suicides? Shame when any group has an adverse "rate of..." change, be it soldier suicides, professional women's breast cancer rates increases, black teen pregnancy, gay unemployment, and so on...But soldier suicides are still less than their civilian cohort peer groups...indicating a host of small problems might be at play. Less stress and risk of violence in Iraq, but possibly recruiting more "fragile" and thus less fit people? It's a small problem, and yes, each individual in America suffering anything is a tragedy.

But after 7 years, its time to shift the dominant narrative to what is good for the whole country and what is best for ALL citizens ----and not so much how all our policy must be predicated on how happy the "hero troops are" or what the Heroes of 9/11 and the Supreme Victimhood claimers - the survivors of 9/11 victims - demand.

He doesn't KNOW how to lead. He knows how to preen. We're stuck with this vagina-man for four years, but hopefully four years of the Gong Show in DC will relegate the quisling party to the wilderness for a long, long time.

"At least with Obama there was a chance he might settle down and run the White House as good as he ran his campaign. Too early to tell, yet."

The signs don't look good. All of the suckers who voted for this dilletante (sorry Althouse, but you too) on the hopes he do so have left us in quite a pickle. Maybe he'll turn out okay. But there's a distinct possibility it'll get worse. It seems that he never gave much thought to what happens after he's in charge. Somebody please explain to him that running for POTUS and being POTUS are two different things. "I won" indeed. Yep, genius, you won. That's the easy part.

Because when this piece of shit pork payola bill blows up as it will, the Democrats want to have someone to share the blame. When the Republicans, smartly, in the House 100% declined to vote for this pig, it meant that if it passes the Democrats get ALL the blame. If the Dems actually felt that this was a good bill and would really do something other than line the pockets of their supporters and political organizations like ACORN, they wouldn't give a rat's ass if any Republicans vote for it.

They know this is terrible legislation but the greedy fucks are going to do it anyway.

Today Jeffery Immelt, GE CEO has been appointed an economic advisor to President Obama. When Immelt succeeded Jack Welsh as CEO the stock was $60.50, yesterday it closed at $10.50. under Immelt's oversight.

Different rules for F.O.O. (Friends of Obama) than other failed Wall Street Fat Cats?

GE owns NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, produces light bulbs, jet engines and wind turbines just to name few of the conflicts of interest that this appointment brings to the table.

This guy Zinni is proving right now-yet again that he's a loose cannon-if he really cared about what was best for the country he shouldn't have let his vanity and hurt feelings reveal the fumbling and lack of preparedness by the Obama team about what should have been an important pick, particularly since not much can be done about that now.

Zinni violated the first rule of changing jobs -- no matter how well the interview went, you're not hired till you get your offer letter.

But in terms of Presidents fumbling the selection of Our Man In Iraq, two words: Ahmed Chalabi.

John writes:He had a ghost writer write a couple of autobiographies.

Allen writes:We have a housing financial crisis, but when he needed a loan for his house, he went to Rezko.

Fascinating, but in this universe, Obama bought his house with the earnings from the book he wrote, borrowing the balance from the bank, and not from his friend Rezko. In Bizarro World, who was the ghost writer, and how much money did Bizarro-Rezko lend Obama?

"She thanked me for taking this, and we went over what needed to be done," General Zinni said. “She turned to Steinberg and Burns and said: 'Let’s get the paperwork moving. We’ve got to move on this.'"

You don't suppose that Herself was doing an end run around Obama, and he had to smack her down?

rip, essentially. i really can't be bothered. i would be mildly interested to understand the desired world state you envision, but not enough to work you. you are like a dumber c4. it's just such hackneyed stereotype.

what is your motivation? is it that the arabs are your friends, the muslims are your friends, the holders of oil are your friends, or you have no friends?

I guess I should be flattered that you're so afraid of Jews, but we're largely harmless. I sure don't see how you figure they are pulling Obama's strings; if I ran the world, Samantha Power would be pulling trains in a Shanghai brothel till the trade deficit was evened out.

As for Zinni...eh. Marines should shut up and follow orders. Nobody wants to hear Marines talk.

It's a matter of just how much of a micro-manager he intends to be. I really can't imagine the situation being that he never said he wanted Zinni for the post. If that's the case, he ought to fire Hillary this instant.

What is the likelihood that the initial okay for Zinni did *not* come from Obama?

"What is the likelihood that the initial okay for Zinni did *not* come from Obama?

Do you think that's possible?"

Yes, and in fact, this is the kind of thing I thought might happen when I read about her being offered that role. He's naive if he didn't, IMO. I just didn't think it would happen this quick.

My tomcat just had to be put down a couple weeks ago, and my girl kitties, who like each other, are jostling for position on the cat pecking order. I've awakened twice to hear one of them on the bed at my feet hissing angrily and turned on the light; she was jumping off the bed and the other standing and watching her go. They'll work it out. I suppose Obama and Hillary will too.